Charged Atmosphere / Tiger Makes His Move to Tie for Lead, and Arnie Makes an Emotional Last Walk

He played 26 holes in eight under par. He made up 11 shots on the second-round leader. He shot a 32 on the back nine Saturday afternoon. He birdied the last hole he played. He moved from sixth place to a tie for the lead in the Masters with Retief Goosen with one round to go today.

So what kind of day did you have, Tiger Woods?

“A long one,” he said.

It was a strange Saturday at Augusta National, where Friday’s downpour meant 38 players--including 72-year-old four-time champion Arnold Palmer, whose Masters career ended with a round of 85--had to come out early to finish the second round.

Then those who, unlike Palmer, made the cut had to play the third round, banging golf balls so muddy they looked like chocolate truffles, and trying to send them spinning in the direction they hoped.

For Woods, defending his Masters title from last April and trying to win his third green jacket in six years, it was a challenge. He said he was playing “mud ball” all day.

“You’ve got to hit some funky shots out there,” he said.

Funky or not, some of the shots that Woods played on a soggy, difficult, nerve-sapping day were nothing short of extraordinary ... like the silky seven-iron that parachuted the ball softly on the 18th green and stopped it 12 feet from the hole. From there, Woods stroked in the birdie putt for a six-under 66, working his way into today’s last twosome with Goosen, the soft-spoken South African.

Recent Masters history has shown that the last group is a good position in which to start the day. The last 11 champions have come from that twosome.

Here’s another consideration: Woods is one of the top closers in golf. When he has been in the lead or tied for the lead with one round to go, Woods is 22-2 in PGA Tour events.

This may be something very real for Goosen to worry about, but the U.S. Open champion has shown himself to be resilient. He is, after all, the player who three-putted the 72nd hole last year at Southern Hills, missing a two-footer for par that would have won it, then came back the next day to beat Mark Brooks and win the Open in an 18-hole playoff.

What could be more worrisome for Goosen is how he bogeyed the 18th to close out his round of 69 and fall back into a tie with Woods at 11-under 205. His tee shot strayed into the trees and Goosen failed to get up and down from the fairway at about 107 yards. Then again, he sounded more concerned about Woods than trees.

“Tiger, he’s going to be the guy to beat,” Goosen said. “But I’m going to play the course the way I’ve been playing it. I can’t hit it the way Tiger hits it. I’m going to be 30 yards behind him tomorrow. I’m just going to have to really try and get it in there close and try to put pressure on him.”

Should either Woods or Goosen falter, a cast of all-stars waits to swoop in and win it. Closest to the leaders is Vijay Singh, who led after two rounds but bogeyed two of the last four holes to finish with a 72, leaving him two shots behind Woods and Goosen.

Singh hit his five-iron second shot into the water on the 15th, where he said he was victimized by mud.

“A lot of mud,” Singh said. “You try to play to the fat side of the greens and hope it goes straight, but you make the best swing you can and you look up and the ball is going sideways. Those are the things you have no control over.”

Phil Mickelson, who had a bogey-free round of 68, and Sergio Garcia, who shot a two-under 70, are four shots back at 209. They are joined there by Ernie Els. Despite a bogey at the last hole after his drive clipped a tree, Els posted a 72 and remained in contention.

The only other player who might be close enough is Jose Maria Olazabal. The two-time Masters champion eagled the 13th hole on his way to a one-under 71 that put him five shots behind Woods and Goosen.

Goosen has a shot at making Masters history. With rounds of 69, 67 and 69, he could become the only player to have four rounds in the 60s. The Masters is the only major that has not had a player shoot four rounds in the 60s.

Only four players scored in the 60s Saturday--Brad Faxon, at 69, joined Woods, Goosen and Mickelson--a circumstance ascribed to the difficult conditions that eliminated any fairway roll, in addition to the tribulations from the much tougher course set-up. If the greens hadn’t been softened by the rain, Woods said the scores wouldn’t even be close to what they were.

“It would have been a completely different story,” he said.

Mickelson said he can win the tournament, even though he is four shots off the lead, but only if he manages a 66 or 65.

“That’s kind of the goal,” he said. “I think the golf course is very susceptible to birdies with the greens being soft and receiving shots well. It’s certainly not playing easy because it’s playing so long, but there are a lot of holes that can be birdied. If I play a good round, I think [winning] is do-able.”

Like Mickelson, Garcia also didn’t have a bogey. But he also had only two birdies and he knows he has a lot of ground to make up.

“It’s always harder when [Woods is] up there four strokes in front of you, there’s no doubt,” Garcia said. “But it’s not impossible. If he was eight shots in front, then I’ll say that’s tough.

“I’ve come from worse places than this and in worse positions to win. But, you know, they are good players, but they are humans, too. If you put some pressure on them, they are going to have a hard time.”

Woods, who began the day six shots behind Singh, said whatever momentum he had in the afternoon was made possible by the way he closed out the eight holes he had to play in the morning to finish the delayed second round. At the 11th, he made a 10-footer for par. He birdied the par-five 13th and the par-five 15th, then ended his round with three consecutive par saves. He made a three-foot putt at the 16th, a 10-footer at the 17th and a four-footer at the 18th.

“I’ve made my share of [birdie] putts, but I think I’ve also made my share of par putts,” Woods said. “These are things that you have to do in order to keep the momentum in the round going. I seem to have been successful at it so far.”

It would seem so. After making three bogeys in a first-round 70, Woods has played the last 36 holes with one bogey and 10 birdies.

And so he’s in the last group at the Masters for the third time; he won from the same position in 1997 and 2001. This means he is not exactly intimidated by the prospect of having a chance to do it again when he plays in the last group.

“I’ve been there before and I look forward to it,” he said.

He’s not the only one.